REVENGE – Harder than Steel
Iron Shield Records
“Harder than Steel” is the
sixth official studio album for the Colombian speed/heavy metal band REVENGE; a
band that has a very productive life so far with singles, EP and full lengths.
Also REVENGE is a band that stays faithful to its sound and somehow manages to
refresh it in each release.
THE COVER: Looks really great and aggressive. I think it is the kind of
cover that passes the message straight forward to the listener. It shows a
Cerberus which is ridden by a demonic – vampire figure that holds a shield with
an R. The figure, which is a kind of a mascot for the band, at least in its
last releases, reminded me a bit of the character Kain of The Legacy Of Kain
games.
MUSICAL STYLE: Their sound from their first release up to now remains
faithful to the 80’s heavy/speed metal sound. The band was always balancing
between the American (bands like EXCITER, RAZOR, PILEDRIVER etc) and the
European sound. In their new album, though, I think that they emphasize on the
European sound and they have strong references to bands like early RUNNING
WILD, GRAVE DIGGER and WARRANT. They also have in their new album a lot of
N.W.O.B.H.M. elements and all these are given under the characteristic sound of
the band.
COMPOSITIONS: The album consists of 10 compositions from which the
one is a cover to RUNNING WILD’s masterpiece “Chains and Leather” and it is
quite good and close to the original. Also on the vinyl edition you will get
one more song as a bonus and it is the live recording of the composition “Metal
& Wild”. All the compositions here are very good with their strong elements
being the memorable melodic leads and of course the harsh speed metal parts.
They have achieved to give to their compositions an 80’s metal touch and yet
they sound fresh and new. My favorite songs from this album are: “Harder than
Steel”, “Gravestone”, “At the Gates of Hell”, and “Motorider”.
CONCLUSION: I know that there are many bands out there that are
trying to bring back the 80’s sound, but they do it in such a way that seems
like someone tries to revive a dead body. REVENGE approach 80’s metal as a
vivid sound that can still give you inspiration to write good songs and because
of that they sound like coming from the 80’s, but also they have something
fresh to give to the listener. “Harder than Steel” is one of their best and
most mature releases and an album that I can recommend without any hesitation
to every fan of the 80’s metal out there, especially if he likes bands like
RUNNING WILD and EXCITER.
Nick “Verkaim” Parastatidis
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